20th Anniversary

After much fan demand, Sega has begun releasing several of their Sonic series soundtracks on to Apple’s iTunes service. Most of these albums, though recently released, aren’t too easy to track down and import for those looking to legally own the music, never mind worrying about bootlegs.

It should be noted that the 20th Anniversary album for the two Adventure titles aren’t as all encompassing as their original releases, which may turn some fans off. However, this is the best chance short of importing to show support for the musicians that worked hard to keep series’ reputation for good music alive and well.

Now that the fires from Generations on PS3, 360, and PC are cooling down, the 3DS version is running… well, slowly, briskly running behind its grander brethren. As we did a small reveal of details before, it only makes sense the 3DS version gets an equal opportunity. Since the 3DS is currently not quite as easy to pick apart as certain consoles, most of the juicy goodness comes our way thanks to Sonic Stadium member Thigolf after getting a copy of the game from a broken street date in Germany.

If the headline itself wasn’t enough of a deterrent, proceed at your own discretion.

While Europeans and Australians were able to get the collector’s edition of Sonic Generations earlier this month, those in the US only got the standard game with the Casino Night pinball stage as a pre-order bonus. You’d think Japan wouldn’t get this kind of treatment either, seeing how there aren’t a large amount of Sonic fans there. Surprisingly this isn’t the case, Japanese site ebten.jp has listed a 20th Anniversary Set with pictures and information on what it includes. This special edition is completely different from Europe’s CE, so you might want to see what it includes:

The main attraction of the set is a crystal cube with Sonic and a life monitor engraved into it (pictured above) which is 6 x 6 x 10 cm. They used a laser to make this thing, and as you may know everything is cooler with lasers. Other extras include a cloth with both Modern and Classic Sonic as well as Sonic the Sketchhog printed on it and the History of the 1st Stage soundtrack, which is different depending on whether you get the PS3/360 or 3DS version. While this doesn’t have as much content as the European CE, it still has some neat stuff collectors might want. The track list of the the soundtracks, more pictures and links to where you can buy this can be found after the jump. Continue Reading

Now, it’s been 18 years since then and the blue blur will finally appear again at the event later this month. This info has been known since last June, but yesterday we got our first glimpse of what he looks like (see the photo above) along with the other new balloons this year when they appeared at Macy’s Balloonfest. You can see the giant inflatable bags in action in this video.

[UPDATE: Erase all doubts about the PC version now. Sega Europe and Sega of America put out a press release confirming a digital version for PCs, which includes support for Steamworks so players can use their saves via Steam’s “cloud” to play their save game from any computer. No word if this will include PC/PS3 interoperability like other Steamworks title Portal 2.]

If any doubts of a PC version of Sonic’s 20th Anniversary flagship title remained, today’s releases from GreenManGaming may be enough to clear it all up.

We’ve seen glimpses of the Genesis and Dreamcast Era stages, leaving just one era to explore before Sonic Generations sweeps its way to consoles globally in a few weeks. Tonight, IGN has fired the last shot courtesy of Sega with the debut of the Modern Era trailer.

Disappearing as quickly as it arrived, German gaming site Giga.de posted up a video I’m guessing they weren’t supposed to – a 28 minute playthrough of the upcoming Sonic Generations, coming across the globe in the early days of November, 2011. Featuring Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, and City Escape, the video also includes extensive footage of the hub world and the glorious Metal Sonic boss fight. Sure, everything they are saying is in German, and it was taken down probably because of an embargo (which means this video here might disappear later on), but in the words of Retro admin Cinossu, “boy is it a lovely 28 minutes.”

Although it should be obvious, this video is chock-full of spoilers. So if you want to stay completely in the dark, you’ll want to avoid the video and everything else below.

With a supposed embargo on Generations information lifting today, we have the first trickle of information in the form of a three and a half minute video from German site GamePro showcasing some of the currently known stages from the console version of the game.

Those worried about Sky Sanctuary lacking the signature elements of the original stage, like bubbly bouncing clouds and the ominous launch of Death Egg through the clouds can breathe a sigh of relief. Although still a different take from the original stage with a more heavenly tropical feel, the soul of the original Sky Sanctuary is still there as Sonic bounds on the clouds. Check out all those alternate paths in the Classic version of the stage!

The video also features looks at Green Hill, Chemical Plant and City Escape. Green Hill now features collectible red rings, Omochao hint bubbles, and additional prompts on screen when Modern Sonic is performing tricks. We also get a view of the Chemical Plant “hub world”, featuring Modern Amy.